18 February, 2008

Finally... I did it: Aloo Paratha

Stack of Aloo Paratha

I have had seen his larger than life pictures in many blogs, glossy cookbooks and magazines, cooking shows. He had tempted and seduced me enough to touch his well toned body, caress his face, and smell his heavenly fragrance! Oh!!! How badly I wanted him. He was always out of my reach and it was my friends whom he favoured. I envied them and the way they seemed to compliment each other. He never seemed to mind the way my friends treated him and never complained about it when most of them seemed to take him for granted. I never knew I was capable of loving someone so much but all I could do was admire him from distance. I was scared of rejection and couldn’t bear the thought of him or my friends laughing at my poor attempt to attract him. I had attempted few times to lure him and failed miserably until two months back… Yes, at last I conquered my fear of rejection and I can’t stop beaming stupidly. It was just few weeks back that I got hold of necessary ingredients to get his attention and since then there is no looking back. Like every fairly tale or M&B's it is happily ever after for me and my round, dark, handsome Paratha!!!

Mastering the art of making perfectly round, well shaped Paratha is not an easy task. And it’s more so when you make stuffed parathas. My Roties and Chapattis are (in)famous among my friends as they use them as examples for Geography classes. It seemed I somehow didn’t manage to inherit ‘perfect round chapatti rolling’ genes from my Amma. To make things worst, it seemed I skipped making ‘soft chapatti’ genes too. There was no trick and tips that I didn’t follow to get soft, round chapattis and the more I tried, the more it resembled some country map. Just when I was thinking of shooting the person who said ‘practice makes perfect’ everything changed drastically. Nope, I didn’t stop making chapattis. I just happened to find the purr-rrr—fect Atta (whole wheat flour). Well, I am not kidding when I say that 90% of credit goes to Atta for delicious Roti/Chapatti/Paratha I make. Using good quality Atta has always been the secret for soft, fluffy roties which you can tear using your thumb and fore finger. Three brands which Amma likes in India are Pillsbury Chakki Fresh Atta,Annapurna and ITC’s Ashirwad. I use Pillsbury Chakki Fresh because that’s the only brand I get in my Indian grocery store and I am happy with the soft, fluffy chapattis it makes. And since then it’s been stuffed Parathas at our place every weekend. Don’t be surprised if you see Stuffed Paratha Parade coming in Monsoon Spice because I am kind of enjoying (read obssesed with) making stuffed parathas these days. And please do share about the brand of Atta, little tricks and tips you follow at your home to make soft, fluffy roties. :)

Today I am posting Aloo Paratha. I used Fresh Green Peas in Atta to give it colour, taste and also little boast of nutrition. The green chillies give bit of heat and mint leaves gives little kick of freshness to the dough. The filling I used is usual mashed potatoes flavoured with kalonji and jeera powder. You can also add Garam Masala if needed but I like the subtle flavours of pungent garlic and hing which compliments sweet taste of potato. This Aloo dish is my humble entry for my an Ode to Potato event and lovely Dhivya's The Potato Fe(a)st.

Method:For Dough:
Grind fresh/frozen green peas with green chillies and mint leaves to smooth paste adding very little water.
Sift chapatti atta, salt to taste and make stiff dough by adding green peas puree and warm water as needed. Cover the dough with wet cheese cloth and keep it aside in a warm place for at least half an hour.

For the Stuffing:
Cook potato chunks with little salt and turmeric powder. Drain water, cool completely and mash it with a wooden masher without leaving any lumps.
Mean while heat oil and add jeera and kalonji. When they sizzle add finely chopped garlic, green chillies and onion and sauté for few seconds. Switch off the flame and mix jeera powder and amchur.
Transfer these contents to mashed potatoes and mix well. Make small lemon sized potato balls and keep aside.

Aloo Paratha- Work-in-Progress

To Make Stuffed Paratha:
Take dough and knead again for about minute and make big lime sized balls.
Dust it with wheat flour and roll it into thick poories of about 4 inch in diameter.
Place the Potato balls in center. Cover and seal the ends and roll again, dusting flour if necessary, into ½ cm thick roties using rolling pin.
Heat a griddle at high flame and lower it to low-medium flame.
Place Stuffed Paratha on griddle and cook on both the sides till its cooked and brown spots start to appear on top. Apply little ghee/oil if desired.
Serve hot Aloo Parathas immediately with any curry or with plain yogurt and pickle of your choice and enjoy.

Aloo Paratha

Note:Before mashing the potatoes let them cool completely. This way the filling will remain dry and filling will not ooze out from covering.Make sure that the potatoes are mashed without leaving any lumps. This helps in rolling the parathas with even surface.

51 comments
:

I know! It's Sunday and I am surfing!:DArvind has gone for a meeting, so I got nothin' to do!I had the same, tried many many times to do Aloo Paratha and failed and finally got it from Pooja's recipe. Doesn't that taste delicious and soft? Love them. Enjoy, you got it now,looks yum!:))

Yay...glad for you :) I know how it feels to get things straight, esp making those perfect round chapathis and non-oozing filled parathas :D I mastered it long ago but yeah I have been there just like you :)They look delicious!!

Sia, the way you have written fits for streamy fiction..hahah...since I scrolled down to see what you are luring so much, I got a hand, had I controlled my curiosity, I would've really thought I was in a wrong place giving an intro to a m&b novel!...

parathas look great...I use pittisbury too..to make the potato non running, I too mix it off the stove as you must've seen in my recent one...other things I mix it raw as it gets cooked while cooking parathas...but lovely idea in mixing peas and mint..if you promise to give an account like you have done you are most welcome to parade all your parathas...actually doesn't matter for that too..bring them on anyways!

You were talking about parathas!!!!!! I was thinking you were talking about some handsome fellow :-))) well but after seeinf these parathas i have to admith they look handsome.I too have never trie filled parathas at home. Should try them once as i've seen in lot of blogs.Just the thought of failing when i make them puts me down.

I turned bright red just reading ur post, even though i have been married 10 yrs. Lol. As red as i would while reading M&B.

Paranthas have been a regular at our place since childhood, but felt very happy that u mastered it at last. I am also not very happy with my aata but do not get pillsbury, asirwad or annapurna, so make do with what i have, That will an electric gas ensures that i cant make paranthas as soft as i could back in India, but they still taste great. Now u can try other varieties like gobhi,gobhi ki sabji, palak, raddish etc.

Congrats on your victory Sia. Very interesting narration. As Srivalli said, your writing style is fit for fiction. Good one. The parathas look so yummy and picturesque. My rotis are always in amoeba shape.

The opening paragraph carried me away and I became restles..I had to find the concluding line to see who that handsome fellow was :D ..LOL.... Paranthas are looking fantastic. It really takes time to master rolling gol gol pranthas esp stuffed ones. You have done a gr8 job Sia!!

Hahahaha..thats a hilarious first paragraph Sia :). I looove aloo parathas, these days I am becoming too lazy, so I just mash the stuffing and mix with cover and then make rotis. So less work and same results. Your parathas look just perfect....

Lovely write-up Sia.. :) He sure looks gorgeous and perfect. See, all these days I thought my inability to make chapathis was my fault .. now i shall blame it all on the flour... :) HOpe to perfect it like you soon.

HOT STUFF!!!!!!!!!!! I have this long term affair with aloo parathas too, whenever I dont feel like making roti-subzi, these come to the rescue!! Hv never tried with mnt ( for me mint= toothpaste! hehehe!) I add chat powder , that gives it a nice twist !! For the dough, i sometimes add 2 tbsp yogurt and bind with milk, nice n softttttttt!!!

hahahaha! Am glad your "Love"ly fairy tale has a happy ending! Guess almost everyone have to work hard for the Mr.Right. And you are smack on Geography lessons! I learnt abt them more with my chapathis than from the ones they conduct at school ;-).

I realised too after few months of trying that it was more to do with atta and preparing the dough with right consistency :)

Am glad you found your "Hero" at last! Now you and also your other Hero ( who for once wont be so J at ur discovery! )can relax in peace :)hahaha

ur aloo parathas look so delicious... which variety of aloo do u use for making these parathas? the kind of aloo which i use turns out to be very sticky after its boiled and mashed.. i used the brown aloos called michigan's best potatoes. :(

hi there, i have difficulty in making stuffd parathas always. can u help me if poss- 2day i sautted some veggies and added tamrind juice and made stuffing. then i started rolling the paratha but the stuffing startd oozing out frm the corners + even my paratha was tearing off from here n there+ uneven distribution of filling and uneven thickness of paratha..can u advise since ur expert in making stuffd parathas. thx for u r help..bye take care.

@Farah,Here r few tips:if you find it too difficult to roll the parathas with stuffing, add ¼-½ cups of maida/all purpose flour when kneading the dough. Maida gives little elasticity to the dough and helps in rolling the stuffed parathas without the stuffing oozing out.

The filling should be dry or else it will ooze out when you roll it into paratha. So may be the tamarind water u added made the filling little wet and that may be one of the reason why it started oozing out. next time substitue tamarind water with little lime/lemon juice or simply use dry mango powder.

ooo,i'm here for the first time and these healthy(for the peas n mint Concoction in the dough) grabbed my interest..i'm gonna try it.i make roti/paratha with spinach puree often..lovely space,Nikki,http://titilating-tastebuds.blogspot.com/

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About Sia

Born in India and raised in fun and food loving family, I currently reside in UK with my better half and my two babies, five years old son and nine years old food blog. My cooking style has strong root in Indian culture and at the same time embraces the world cuisine with equal passion. With never ending love for food, spice and life, I am passionate about cooking and making Indian food less intimidating, healthy and easy to cook which reflects in my blog Monsoon Spice which has been ranked one among Top Indian food blogs. Read more…

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